The invention relates to a method to control refuse management fleets and control the pick up of refuse bins, especially those from commercial clients.
Refuse management of residential and commercial garbage is a large industry wherein one fleet may service hundreds of commercial businesses in multiple cities or regions. In a competitive industry such as in refuse management there is always a need to be as efficient as possible. It is therefore imperative that the management of the refuse system can monitor its personnel and fleet operations to provide efficient use of both the personnel and the trucks on a day by day schedule. It is also imperative to management that only documented and paying customers are serviced by the trash pick-up fleet. It is further another important aspect for personnel management to monitor the location and time of the various customer pick-ups to provide efficient distribution of personnel and fleet vehicles.
As costs for the disposal of trash increase, it may be desirable to monitor the weight of the trash during the pick up process to help determine current charges and estimate future growth. Therefore, it would also be desirable to provide a means to weigh the trash of each particular customer and record the information for each customer.
It is the intent of the present invention to address the aforementioned concerns. The present invention provides a method for controlling refuse management fleets of trucks which empty refuse or trash bins of designated customers into a container attached to each truck. The method includes verifying that the refuse bin belongs to a documented customer. An identifier on the refuse bin is compared to a list of documented customers, each having a designated identifier. If the identifier on the refuse bin does not match a documented customer, the disposal truck goes to the next refuse bin. If the identifier matches a documented customer, then the trash is picked up and certain tracking and documentation information is monitored. In one aspect of the invention, the method includes providing a computer controller on the truck such that the computer controller has an internal clock for monitoring realtime for recording the time of certain actions.
In another aspect of the invention, the identifier may be a bar code placed on the refuse bin. In yet another aspect of the invention, a list of designated customers can be stored either in the computer or on a hard copy ledger. As an alternative, each refuse bin may be equipped with a transmitter or computer chip which provides an output signal as the identifier.
Other applications of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when the following description of the best mode contemplated for practicing the invention is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.